Club News 2004 - 2005



Improvements to goal posts
Des Ife 24th August 2004 10:04 GMT

Pat has added stanchions to our goalposts during the summer break and so now our nets look more inviting (hopefully to us and not our opponents). There is now no excuse for missing goals!.

Unfortunately, following illness within the family, Gordon Preston had to suddenly leave the club as he will not be available for some time. We would like to wish him the best of luck for his future.

Pre-season Friendlies
The season started off well with Brian Lewis, our new coach, having joined us. Our first game was against Dun & Bradstreet who had gained promotion into Divn 1 of the men's Sunday Combination League. We won this game 5-1. The next week we played Flackwell Heath from the SBYL Divn 1 and we won 4-2. In our final friendly we played Downley and emerged 6-0 victors.

Berks and Bucks Cup
This game was played against SBYL Divn 1 opposition Penn & Tylers Green and we made a quick exit from the competition with a 6-3 defeat.

Mini League
The Mini League was composed of 20 teams organised into 5 groups of 4 teams. Within each group the teams played each other once, the results then determining into which Division (2nd or 3rd) each team was placed for the season. Group B consisted of Amersham Town, Bedgrove Dynamos, Hithercroft and Wingrave. Hithercroft drew 1-1 against Bedgrove Dynamos and beat Amersham Town 5-4. Owing to lack of time for our remaining game the SBYL committee awarded a 1-1 draw against Wingrave United and so Amersham were placed in Divn 3 with the other teams going into Divn 2.

League Cup
Hithercroft were awarded byes in the preliminary rounds and beat First Division Berkhamsted Raiders 1-0 in Round 1. In the Quarter Final we were drawn against First Division side Aylesbury Saints and this game was postponed 5 times before eventually taking place, our opponents eventually going through to the Semi Final round after winning 2-1.

League Games
We opened our league games with a 3-2 home win over Hughenden Athletic but then lost our next game 2-1 at Cookham Dean. In our home game against Chiltern Athletic we were trailing 3-1 by half-time in wet and muddy conditions but after 12 minutes of the second half Hithercroft had drawn level at 3-3 when the referee abandoned the game. The game was replayed near the end of the season. We then had two wins, firstly a 6-2 win over Risborough Rangers and then a 5-0 win at Wingrave United. Against Naphill Boys we lost 7-1 being without Simon Mines in goal (he was on holiday) and going down to ten players following an injury after we had used our subs. Our next game against Widmer End saw us lose 1-0 and in our return match against Hughenden Athletic we drew 3-3. Seven weeks later, following a series of postponements, we achieved a 2-1 victory at Chiltern Athletic but then lost 6-4 in our return match against Cookham Dean who had 'done the double' over us. There followed another loss of 2-1 to Naphill Boys who therefore also achieved the 'double'. We then returned to winning ways when we beat Chesham Rangers 3-0 and then came from 2-0 down to beat Risborough Rangers 3-2 in our first mid-week game of the season. We were then in a position to take the division title if we could win all of our remaining 6 games but our hopes were dashed when Widmer End were the 3rd team to 'do the double' over us, winning 2-1. Chiltern Athletic had now won the division 2 title and had also won the Subsidiary Cup but they came unstuck with their re-played midweek game against Hithercroft, losing 5-2. Although it was still possible to end up in the runners-up spot the league had declared that all games would have to be completed by 28th April in order that the trophies and medals could be presented at the League Cup Final. However, they relented and announced that they could not give out the Division 2 runner-up medals to Chesham Rangers as Hithercroft could still 'pip' them to it. Our first league game against Bedgrove Dynamos ended up with a 3-2 win for us, Richard Vere scoring the winner just one minute before the final whistle. Our return game against Bedgrove Dynamos was played on 22nd May and, after Bedgrove had taken the lead just after the kick-off, Hithercroft went ahead 2-1 but ended up losing 3-2. This ended our chance to finish in runner-up position. On 29th May we played the 'away' game against Chesham Rangers at the Pedestal and won 3-2, Chesham initially taking the lead, Hithercroft regaining it at 2-1, Chesham then equalising and Hithercroft getting the winner five minutes from the end. This meant that Hithercroft finished the season in 3rd place in the Division.